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APTER 22

HOW GOD SUSTAINS US

“God, because of our receiving His mercy and grace, will SUSTAIN us in all circumstances; even all circumstances of carnal habits and behavior. Paul’s comment of how God can work all things to His good comes into play. Let me give you a recent circumstance to bring this out. Doing a lot of work around my house lately I worked up a sweat and a thirst and found myself drinking soda a lot more than normal. Unaware of what was happening I started feeling dizzy with this persistent fuzzy feeling; more tired than normal. It began to affect my work performance. Well, I asked God what was happening to me. Here is His reply,

“I can sustain you as I have promised; but in this sustaining, you will have normal effects. I can sustain you with or without these reactions, so why would you do this, when you could have a better experience without the carnal reactions.? Cut back on the consumption of soda and watch me sustain you without the added carnal affects; drink more water. You read of how I sustained the Apostle Paul through many circumstance; just natural things that would occur for him, things like ship wrecks, being bitten by a snake. Your drinking soda, as you have done to excess lately, would be like Paul deliberately looking for snakes to bit him or always taking a boat hoping that it would wreck “thinking I would sustain him as I did.” Why would he do that?”

Amazing how God can work around our ignorance! As I type this I am feeling much better and am watching “Excess.” which we are warned about in scriptures. Remember, God will sustain you in spite of yourself via His promised mercy and grace; yet WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT WHICH WOULD GIVE YOU A NATURAL CAUSE AND EFFECT?” Remember, He would sustain you with or without these effects. Sure, all things are ours, yet we will find, on an individual level, that some things just aren’t expedient. Doing this isn’t intended to get you on a “health kick” and start condemning, for example, soda. The key here is found in the words, EXCESS, and the SUSTAINABILITY of God in spite of our ignorance at times.